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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Virtuoso Guitarist, Tohpati, has been a very busy man with
his projects including Tohpati Bertiga and Tohpati Ethnomission in the
Indonesian Jazz Rock scene and one of the bands that he was in a group called
Simakdialog that was launched 20 years ago by keyboardist Riza Arshad in
Jarkata. While Indonesia carries the touches of Art and Music, this band really
can take the sounds of Jazz Rock up a level with middle-eastern beats,
classical, and percussion beats to really get you up off the chair and dance to
the rhythm.

In the group which is a five-piece band featuring alongside
Riza Arshad and Tohpati, features Adhithya Pramtama on Bass and percussionists
Endang Ramdan and Erlan Suwardana. These two albums including the live album
Patahan from MoonJune Records and their fifth album, Demi Masa as well, can really come
in handy in a big way and you can tell there is some magic and wonder from a
five piece that can take you on an amazing adventure you never dreamed of.

The performance was recorded at Goethe Haus in 2006 and from
this live recording, you could tell that the audience themselves were in awe
and almost have their jaws-dropped from the moment Riza plays the first few
notes on the Piano and knowing that this was an experience they’ll never
forget. It’s relaxing and the soothing introduction pieces on One Has to Be and
Spur of the Moment, which has this resemblance of the smoky jazz clubs in the
late ‘50s and early ‘60s as Riza pays tribute to McCoy Tyner as if the group
were paying tribute to John Coltrane and Vince Guaraldi in which he does to
capture the essence of the sound as if they were writing a sequel to A Love
Supreme.

Then, all of a sudden, everything starts to change with the
Avant-Garde experimental thumping touches that has a floating atmosphere on
Kemarau, featuring some dramatic percussion work before the band go into this
Rock In Opposition homage in the midsection with computers going haywire to set
up the dystopian universe for the climax while Worthseeing gives the band a
chance to do whatever they want and be creative with their instruments as the
audience could tell, who were very quiet were in awe from Bebop, ‘70s Rock, and
African-Tribe movements filling up the hall.

Then comes the closer, Kain Sigli, which starts off as a
poetry reading in German and Indonesian translation as Nyak Ina Raesuki comes
in with her vocalization and just gives it all she got as the band follows her
voice in this Ambient Bossa-Nova turned Flamenco adventure as she goes high in
the melody as it becomes this energetic moment between the members and Nyak for
this difficult time changing movement that becomes the highlight of the show to
close off with a bang.

Demi Mosa, released in 2009, takes the Jazz Fusion level up
a notch and the people from MoonJune Records, do they know Jazz and Prog Rock
music very well for the 21st century. This feels like it was
recorded in the 1970s and the music seems to carry the torch very well with a
lot of the structures for the group to understand the meaning of the influence
and it’s something to take note of.

The touches of Fender Rhodes Piano is really just completely
out there for Riza to pay tribute to Herbie Hancock, Keith Tippett, Mike
Ratledge, and Jan Hammer as he takes the Rhodes for a wonderful road trip into
the Indonesian countryside which is evidential on Salilana Pertama (Foerver
Part One) and he just goes for it as the band are smiling and knowing they have
done their job to give Riza a moment to shine including a duet between him and
Tohpati on the lukewarm touches on Tak Jauh Pertama (Not So Far, Part One)
before it becomes a percussion thunderstorm.

Elsewhere, the trilogy to Trah Lor (Northern People) is one
of the most experimental pieces that they’ve done on Demi Masa. It goes through
this Acoustic Guitar and Jazzy Piano lines that makes it like a concerto
featuring a swooping synth setting up the scenery (Voices) before it becomes
this avant-ambient keyboard movement with a MIDI-like vocal work and then
percussion and piano do a freak-out session as it becomes an homage to the
Flying Teapot sessions of Gong to close the trilogy off in a Spacey swoosh
(Faces and Prints)

The closer Disapih (Separate Away), is Tohpati’s fast and
slow meets stop-and-go time signature for his guitar to have a bit of Fun in
the style of John McLaughlin turned into another futuristic rock finale to give it the final voyages to boldly go where he's never gone before. Simakdialog are for me, one of the most heart
stopping groups to come out of Indonesia. And after hearing these two albums, I’ve
began to realize that my heart has finally been opening up the door of hearing
world music doing these genres and I hope they are doing another album sometime
in the future and let's see what the future will hold for MoonJune Records. I can't wait to see what they will have up their sleeves for 2013

Friday, January 25, 2013

In the era of Guitar Gods, there have been a lot of
virtuoso's that have taken the ultra-mile by going further like a speeding
NASCAR. People like Robert Fripp, Jimmy Page, John McLaughlin, Frank Zappa,
Jimi Hendrix, and Steve Howe have been giving us a lot of mind-blowing work and
their guitar lines, rhythm, and solos have blown us away from beginning,
middle, and end. And now, there’s a newcomer from the land of Indonesia and as
hearing his other project with Ethnopassion’s Save The Planet, Tohpati is one
of the most up-and-coming guitarist (his real name is Tohpati Ario Hutomo) to
come out of the Jazz Rock scene and creates this wonderful magic on his style
of playing that is out of this world.

He has been a very busy man and his other project called,
Tohpati Bertiga, which is a trio featuring Indro Hardjodikoro (Ethnopassion),
and Drummer Adityo Wibowo in which they are almost this combination of
Jazz-Prog-Funk-Metal with a fast time driven beat that is a wonderful “WOW!”
factor from the moment you play Riot in its entirety. Beginning with the
thumping overdrive on Upload, you could tell that Tohapti is paying tribute to
Steve Hackett and Pat Metheny that has this hard rocking edge with a lot of
explosive drum work as Tohpati just goes to town with these wonderful lines on
the guitar that it’s almost like a road trip to see where the notes will land
on the frets that can be an amazing journey.

Elsewhere, it feels that he’s back on the Bullet Train to go
on this dangerous ride with the title track in where he does his Mahavishnu
Orchestra inspiration for the first few minutes before it becomes this
laid-back psychedelic bluesy groove for the last three minutes to give the
engine to cool down. Then you have Absurd in which Tohpati gives Indro a moment
to shine with his Stanley Clarke bass line as he lays down the funk/soul bass
work to show how much amazement he has with his fingers while Middle East has
this layered calmness that sees the band go into some difficult changes that I
really get a kick out of when a RIO or Jazz Rock band go into that movement.

The guitar structures, the powder keg drums, and the bass
lines makes it like a dance-like atmosphere to really get you going. Lost in
Space is very atmospheric and warm as the trio go into this calm after the
storm after a huge loud and thumping movements in their compositions as Tohpati
takes the listener into the Milky Way and soaring into the Solar Systems going
into different planets with different chord-lines.

Riot is a knock-out album and something that would make me
understand about how Jazz Rock has been revived in its retrospective feel of
the 1970s in the golden-era and they understand where it comes from. Tohpati
Bertiga album is a spectacular adventure that would make you wish and
understand how real good music isn’t dead, but coming back out of the blue to
give you a good jump.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

While the blog is a tribute to the label, MoonJune Records,
and covering the revival of the Jazz Rock scene from around the globe, I’ve
come across some good ones that have completely took me by surprise and there
is the solo project that Tohpati (which is his real name) from Indonesia called
Tohpati Ethnomission. Now I’m not an expert on the history of Indonesia, but
what I have listened to is something that is beyond my wildest dreams and has
got me hooked into this amazing virtuoso and that album is called, Save the Planet.

When I was listening to this album, I was completely hooked
and not just from Tohpati’s astonishing guitar work, but the way he’s
completely just taking the listener into a calm-like atmosphere into sounds of
Jazz, Prog, and the Middle-Eastern sounds that captures a sound for Peace among
other worlds to stop the two things, War and Anarchy. However, his guitar
playing is going through the emotions of crying, anger, moody, and gentle throughout
the entire structures on Save the Planet including a soothing vocalization done
by Lestari that gave me chills down my spine on Sacred Dance before the band
goes into a blistering yet warm-like movement to go into this climatic finale.

Alongside Tohpati the band considers; Indro Jardjodikoro on
Bass, Endang Ramdan on percussion, Demas Narawangsa on Drums, and Diki
Suwarjiki on Soundscapes and Flute. The music goes through various improvisations
like an explosive dance set to mind-boggling music to have audiences just be
taken away from hearing this from start to finish. There’s this wonderful duel between Tohpati, Endang,
Demas, and Diki on the 8-minute composition, Ethno Funk where they would do this
competition where it would be this wonderful combination between the four
instruments creating some difficult time-changes and go through Soft, Haunting,
and Driven beats to really get you into an uplifting beat.

But then Tohpati gives a chance for the band members a
moment to shine and that’s where Indro’s wonderful bass work comes in
resembling Stanley Clarke and Jaco Pastorius on New Inspiration where Tohpati
goes into these fast-jazz chords and into a bluesy line and Indro comes in with
this unbelievable funky slap on the thumb that is jaw-dropping. Elsewhere,
Battle Between Good and Beast has this spiritual yet powerful homage to Steve
Morse, Frank Zappa, and John McLaughlin as Gateway of Life has Endang and
Tohpati go into this tension moment as they do another competition on who could
win the race between percussion and guitar.

The closer, Anger, has this evil and sinister battle
aftermath as Tohpati challenges Robert Fripp with an homage to the ending of
Prince Rupert’s Lament on King Crimson’s Lizard that is eruptive and hypnotic
and an amazing way to close the album off with a Hard Rock Guitar structured
rhythm and lead work. It’s just amazing from hearing this album and I can’t
wait to see what Tohpati will have up his sleeves and what he would do next.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

One of the most amazing things in the history of Jazz Rock
scenes in the ‘70s, is that they would the music level up a notch in fast time
changes, funk-driven moments, and some heavy guitar licks in the realms of John
McLaughlin. But one of the bands to come out of the revival of the Jazz-Rock
scene is a trio coming from the land of Indonesia called Ligro (which in
backwards means “crazy people”) which they launched nine years ago. In the
band, it considers; Agam Hamzah on Guitar, Adi Darmawan on Bass, and Gusti
Hendi on Drums.

This is the band’s second album called Dictionary 2, and while
this is my introduction to the band’s music from the Moonjune label, I’m completely
blown away from hearing these guys from start to finish. It’s like a jet engine going six hundred miles per hour with
a huge speeding zone that feels as if its coming right at you with a bang and
seeing where the roaring beauty goes from one direction to another. Agam Hamzah’s
guitar playing is completely out of this world and at times it has this
combination of Allan Holdsworth, John McLaughlin, and Robert Fripp all rolled
up into one piece and something magical happens when he plays the notes on the
fret that is a jaw-dropping effect like no other.

Then you have Gusti Hendi’s drum patterns, as I’ve mentioned
other Symphonic and Prog-Metal drummers, they drum work sounds like a Machine
gun that reigns rapid fire when it comes to the instrument, and Gusti is one of
them with his homage to Bill Bruford, Tony Williams, John Densmore, and Billy
Cobham. And then there’s Adi Darmawan’s
bass playing which I imagine when he was a child grew up hearing bass players
like Tony Levin, Stanley Clarke, Chris Squire, Jaco Pastorius, and Geddy Lee
when he just nails those bass lines to give it a surprising twist and while the
three members are carrying the spirit of Prog and Jazz-Rock, it’s a wonderful
reception for a delicious dinner to check out and give it a hot and warm
reception.

Beginning with a speeding introduction with a King
Crimson-like hard rock introduction on the seven-minute piece, Paradox, you
begin to think they are just another Jazz Rock band, but they’re not. They are
staying true to the core of the ‘70s Jazz-Prog scene that comes at you with a
bang. The guitar picking is completely mind-blowing and can really take the
listener into another dimension in a far-away land that is beautiful and
surreal.

Then the bass line that Adi does as an introduction to Jaco’s
fingering on the Bach piece before seguing into a hypnotic Mahavishnu
Orchestra-driven beat on Stravinsky, can come at you out of nowhere and make
you give a freight that makes it a perfect antidote to make you run fast for an
excellent workout. There are three highlights on the album that just took me by
surprise and mind you, you really need to buckle your safety belts because once
the car starts going fast, there’s no turning back.

There’s the stop-and-go blues driven roadrunner upbeats on
Don Juan with Hamzah’s funky guitar licks and speed and slowed down layered
rhythm and lines and Gusti’s drum lines, keeps the tempo flowing by seeing
which way the yellow brick road would take them into. Bliker 3 begins with a
Piano Concerto that feels like something straight out of Disney’s Fantasia as
it goes into this darker and haunting turned into a soaring improvisation that
Agam’s bass work as Hamzah gives him some help as they play like a team and
then into this ambient avant-garde atmosphere that makes us feel we are inside
the mind of a lunatic in an asylum.

Miles Away is a beautiful and loving tribute to Miles Davis’
fusion-era that has some ‘60s Psych beauty that they go into a Jimi Hendrix
meets Omar Rodriguez-Lopez momentum that makes you want to dance and just get
the groove on as Ligro takes it up a notch. One of the things I love about this
band is that they really feel as if they had performed the whole thing live
from start to finish. And what this trio has done is something spectacular and
give the music of both Prog and Jazz a big warm hug and they know their musical
inspiration and roots very well.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Since their formation in the late ‘90s in Canada, Mahogany
Frog’s music is like a trip through time and space to create this wonderful ingredient
of Psychedelic and Experimental Music as if they were formed at the end of the
Flower revolution. Their album, Senna, released last year, is one of the most
amazing journey’s to really get you up into light speed and go into different
worlds and beyond the milky way that you’ve never seen before.

This is my introduction to band’s music and let me just say
and I’m completely blown away from what I’m hearing from start to finish and do
they know their roots of Prog very well. At times it feels like a Space Rock
adventure as if the commanders on the ship were the early days of Pink Floyd,
Ash Ra Tempel, CAN, Yes, and Hawkwind as they are the new commanders of the
Millennium Falcon. The band considers Graham Epp on Guitar and Keyboards, Jesse
Warkentin on Guitar and Keyboards, Scott Ellenberger on Bass, and Andy Rudolph
on Drums and Percussion, and together it’s a soaring experience on the way they
play their instruments and almost as if they had recorded the soundtrack to the
1976 sci-fi cult classic, Logan’s Run.

The Retrospective Sound of the late ‘60s and ‘70s golden era
of Progressive Rock on Senna, are completely mind-blowing. There’s the spiritual
uplifting organ and guitar-driven beats with a Symphonic Garage-Rock roaring
upbeat on Flossing with Buddha that makes it a fun-filled arrangement that
would have the Martians have a wonderful dance to this while Expo ’67 they have
a grand time with a swirling fuzzy moog introduction before kicking off into
Beatlesque Sgt. Pepper-era filled with guitar structures that are layered and powerful drum beats to set the
atmosphere.

Meanwhile the suites on Message from Uncle Stan, just keeps
getting better and better. Grey Shirt has this wild avant-garde eerie effect
that pays tribute to Krautrockers Ash Ra Tempel as Green House goes into this
fuzzy bass and keyboard work-out resembling the Nuggets-era of the late ‘60s. And
then there’s another suite called Houndstooth, which sounds like a graphic novel written by Alan Moore, goes into this touches of the ‘80s electronic yet gothic-like rebirth
scenery with a slide guitar background for a chance to be reborn before it
becomes a terrifying Doom Prog-Metal atmosphere featuring this twisted chant on the drums and the evil spirits come to
life to reign terror like no other!

I have listened to this about five times already and so far
I’m getting hooked into Mahograny Frog’s music after hearing Senna and while
they’re no vocals in the album, with straight-on instrumental tracks, I could
tell that I’m soon going to be a huge fan of their music this year. It’s a
beautiful, magical, and magnificent album that is soon going to be the
Soundtrack of a Science-Fiction TV series sometime in the future.

As I’ve mentioned before, if you love the early days of Pink
Floyd, Hawkwind, CAN, Yes, and the Nuggets-era, this is it!

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Almost as if they are following in the footsteps of The Mars
Volta, Mogwai, The Cardiacs, Henry Cow, Frank Zappa, Magma, and King Crimson,
Belgian’s SH.TG.N is one of the most eruptive and powerful bands to come out of
the scene of Post-RIO-Pronk (Punk-Prog) bands to come out of nowhere as if the monster
has let loose to reign hell on the small citizens of a tiny village to have a
human feast. Their debut album, released on MoonJune Records, is like a
volcanic explosion waiting to happen and it is out of this world from start to
finish as if they almost recorded this for an experimental animated film from
the ‘70s.

The band was founded three years ago by keyboardist Antoine
Guenet of The Wrong Object, who wanted to take the genre into a whole new level
and push it as far as he can go. And what Antoine has done, he has successfully
pushed the envelope with SH.TG.N and it’s a perfect match and makes absolute
perfect sense. Alongside Antoine, the band considers; Wim Segers on Vibraphone, Yannick De Pauw on
Guitar, Dries Geusens on Bass, Simon Segers on Drums, and Fulco Otervanger on
Lead Vocals.

Fulco’s voice in which it resembles at times Tim Smith, Zach
De La Rocha, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and a shrieking version of Marc Ysaye of
Machiavel, he is the mad scientist to mix up those bizarre ingredients with his
vocals as the band members help him to see which difficult time signature they
would go into whether it’s a Hard or Jazz Metallic structures, and the
experiments are quite extraordinary. While
they go into a full throttle Interstellar Overdrive with their instruments, it
shows they are not showing off, but really push you over the edge for at times
quiet and then becomes a throttling adventure.

Segers drum patterns makes it sound like a hail of bullets
when he goes into town which is evidential on Deejays Should Have Low
Self-Esteem as De Pauw’s guitar work has this raw and energetic Rodriguez-Lopez
meets Fripp-like sound that is in your face and give the top ten mainstream
radio sponsors, the big middle finger. There is some element of Zappa and a
Metallic version of Gentle Giant and some jaw-dropping moments to take
listeners by surprise.

There’s the Jazz-Funk-Fusion haunting momentum on Camera
Obscura as Segers plays through the Vibraphone as Geusens creates this creepy
bass line while Fulco goes into this political view on how everything is completely
under controlled, but it isn’t by a world of Fools while it becomes an homage
to Sabbath as if they moved away from the Doom scene into a transformation and
became a Rock in Opposition pronk band with the thumping tracks; Esta Mierda No
Es Democracia, Eraser Her Dad and Shotgun (Afraid Of).

A band that really knows their roots of RIO, Pronk, and
Metal, this is a band that is completely mind-blowing and something would
really get the underground clubs take notice of, SH.TG.N is soon planning to be
one of my favorite up-and-coming bands and MoonJune have scored a huge Home
Run!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

It’s hard to imagine hearing music from a different part of
the world and listening to the sounds of Avant-Progressive Rock and Jazz Rock
at the same time and knowing that this something worth exploring by opening the
door and seeing what is inside that closed door. One of the bands that I’ve
discovered is a group called, Machine Mass Trio from MoonJune Records and a few
others to be worked on later during January and at the end of February as well,
is to understand that Prog and Jazz aren’t just four letter words.

The band features two members from douBt featuring Tony
Bianco on Drums and Percussion, Michel Delville on Guitar, Bouzouki and
Electronics and Jordi Grognard on Sax, Electronic Tempura, Flute, and Bass
Clarinet as the band go into this wonderful trance of Free Jazz, Avant-Garde
beauty, difficult time changes, and at times, laid-back grooves to make
understand on how the wonder of the music is still going in strong. At times,
As Real as Thinking, pays homage to Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, John
Coltrane, Magma, and John McLaughlin, and boy, do they know their musical
influences very well.

The band recorded the album in Belgium in 2010 and it was
recorded live with no overdubs. Machine Mass Trio shown a lot of improvisation
when it comes to Avant-Jazz Rock and it feels like they make it sound like a beautiful
and twisted journey with some strange and out-of-this-world moments that would
make you get goose bumps to see which direction the yellow brick road they
would go into. A lot of crazy saxophone work that Jordi does to pay tribute to
Coltrane and to David Jackson of VDGG while Tony Bianco goes into the styles of
Elvin Jones and Bill Bruford as Delville creates some Fripp-like work on the
guitar that is crunchy, raw and powerful.

Pieces like UFO-RA which has this homage to the Swing-era
and the ‘50s Sci-Fi B-Movie scores featuring a thumping bass line, keyboard
sounding like a theremin in the midsection, and Jordi going into town with his
sax work while the middle-eastern influences kicks into full gear on the
ambient/atmosphere surrealism with Khajurao as Delville goes into this spiritual
trance on the Bouzouki as Jordi creates this mourning funeral technique on the
flute. Then there’s the stop-and-go fusion funk technique on Hero that has this
cool vibe as the 18-minute musique-concrete, Falling Up which again, has this
surreal improv between Bianco and Delville as it goes into the realms of the Soft Machine's Third-era, King Crimson, and Egg.

I didn’t know how to describe about As Real As Thinking, but
after listening to the album about three times, I was completely hooked and
Machine Mass Trio are almost the real deal. I hope they would release another
album sometime in the future, they really got something up their sleeve. An
album that is a journey beyond the infinite.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Massive touches of Death, Ritual Occults, and Doomy-Prog
atmospheres can really take you into a different area and The Magik Way is one
of the band’s music to describe how evil, sinister, and strange it is that they
can really show their true love of the obscure side of the ‘70s and ‘80s
underground rock scene in Italy. Following in the footsteps of Antonius Rex,
Devil Doll, and Jacula’s music, the band was formed out of the ashes of
Mortuary Drape in 1996, the music is hypnotic and in your face, but it has a
hidden, dark, and terrifying dosage of Horror and Gothic storytelling for
inspiration.

The band recorded the material in the late ‘90s until
thirteen years later to finally see the light of day released under the label,
Sad Sun Music. For admires of the Death and Doom-Metal scene, anyone who wants
to go into some darken spiritual journey, should definitely fasten their seat belts
because the ride is about to be an eruptive and mind-blowing experience that
you are about to explore. The first four tracks of the first act, has this
blistering, shrieking metallic volcanic eruption with thunderous guitar lines,
growling vocals, and rapid firing sounds on the drums, featuring some difficult
time-signature movements that they go into, sets the tone on what is about to
come.

When they go into the realms of a tribute to the Swedish
Extreme Metal bands like the early days of Opeth, which is evidential on The
Doubt (il Dubbio) and The Knowledge (La Conoscenza) with this feel of a
political speech spoken in Italian featuring this droning sound, there is
something amazing going on here with this group. But on The Sacrifice (il
Sacrificio), at first the nightmare is completely over with a calming guitar
layered introduction, but then it goes into this heavy atmosphere of rumble
bass line, bell tolling, and then BAM! It comes at you like a symphonic epic
finale to a film for some compelling surroundings.

Then onto the second act (Cosmocaos) released in 1999, show
the Materials into uncharted territories. Five centerpieces including the
children’s lullaby gone wrong in a dystopian universe and reminds me of Dario
Argento’s 1977 cult classic, Suspiria’s first 15 minutes of the film. There are
these moments of operatic female singers shouting for their god as if they were
tied up in the asylum, singing and becoming mad as well which is shown on Danza
Degli Elementi, and L’Icona. Then there
this catholic-church organ sound that resembles a creepy version of Pink Floyd’s
Saucerful of Secrets-era on Trasposizione while the militant and political
touches on Le Maschere di Pietra goes into the tribute and homage in the realms
on Amon Duul II’s Deutsch Nepal.

Yet one of the most surreal atmospheric and ambient pieces
on the Materia Occulta, was Pianto ed Estasi. This swarm of moog, quiet turned
operatic vocals between a call-and-response from male and female voices, and
lushful synths that keeps it a cool and chilled-out compositions sort of
resembling the early days of the Phaedra-era of Tangerine Dream. The Magik Way’s
music is not easy to listen from start to finish, but it has a very interesting
sound going from the shrieking Metal sounds into a doomy dark-like dalek beauty
of evil that no one has ever heard before.

Monday, January 7, 2013

The Italian Thrash Metal band, Eversin, who are following in
the footsteps of the kings of Slayer and early Metallica, are staying true to
the roots of the genre and they are going to hit the Metal circuit and the
festivals including Wacken sometime in the future. And their second album,
Tears on the Face of God, is described as a massive monolith as a Panzer Tank
that will take you on a journey through past and present battlefields. And let
me just say, they are absolutely right to take the listener and headbanger from
Point A to Point B on this explosive and eruptive album that is like a bullet
train into uncharted territories.

And while the cover shows a futuristic utopian city that is
now gone horribly wrong, the music itself is raw and powerful that has a lot of
heavy vocals, powerful guitar lines and riffs, thumping bass work, and the
drums sounding like a machine gun ready to reign fire, you know you are about
to explore the darker side of War that you haven’t seen before in all of its glory.
While there’s no stop sign on these eight compositions that is a blistering
explosion that comes out of nowhere into at times the genre of Power into the
core, it starts to make absolute sense to fit everything in its right place.

Angelo Ferrante’s vocal reminds me of Tom Araya of Slayer
because he’s not trying to rip him off, but more of an homage and tribute to
the music that Eversin grew up listening to which is evidential on the title
track. Then there are three centerpieces songs like the ‘80s powder-keg riff
explosion on the aftermath of the end of the world on Nuclear Winter which
deals with the Post-Apocalypse of Hiroshima that is very powerful while The Tale of
a Dying Soldier, with its melodic and sinister narration of the soldier writing
his last memoir about hearing the screams and in the silence and darkness, and
realizes that War is not right for him and his Sins are shadowed for him to
become the self-sacrifice in flames.

Then, there’s the Death Metal race through time that sounds
like a Jet Engine soaring over 500 miles per hour on the closing track, Under
The Ocean which has this Jekyll and Hyde between clean and whisper-like
shrieking vocals that again deals with the issues of War. You have to
understand this album is about to hit home with soldiers who are struggling the
daily lives to act as normal people and still have flashbacks (PTSD) from Iraq and
Eversin has done one hell of a job to really understand on what it is to go
inside the mind of a soldier who is suffering from this routine.

If the sounds of Thrash, Death, and Power Metal have
combined into one and had a huge revival, then Eversin would fit into the genre
and have finally come into full swing and this album is a must listen for
people who want to really get into the spirit of the three genres or lend a
Soldier a helping hand to let them know how dangerous the War in Iraq or at Home can
really be.

Black Metal is not an easy genre to get into from start to finish.
Now when you think of the term, Black Metal, you think of Venom, Sepultra,
Mayhem, and Mercyful Fate to name a few with shrieking vocals, powerful guitar work,
and the drums going up a notch and singing about the occult, and mind you when
you hear it, just prepare to take it to the ultimate limit for the preparations
you will take. But it can also tell a story as well, and one of the band from Italy
is called Lord Agheros which is a solo project from Evangelou Gerassimos, who I
imagine was inspired by the four bands along with Ulver, has come a long way
since their formation in the mid and late ‘90s and have taken a vantage of
classical music, concept album, and operatic atmospheres to really get your
mind flowing for an adventure you’ll never forget.

The music itself is terrifying, haunting, and hypnotic and
Demiurgo, is a difficult, strange, and yet a mind-bending complex album that
has some unexpected moments of a story that feels like something out of the
gothic atmosphere. There are some unexpected moments like the musique-concrete
ambient structures featuring an operatic vocalization on Erebo, feels like
something straight out of the Phaedra period from Tangerine Dream’s early days
while the first eight tracks which goes straight into the heart of snarling yet
roaring vocalizations that can make you jump out of your listening chair to ask
yourself “how in the hell did they do that?”

The vicious tracks like Lyssa, Eris, Thanatos, and Nemesi,
punches you right in the gut that suddenly came out of nowhere to prepare for a
rumbling earthquake with a lot of rapid machine gunfire including an orchestral
background on the keyboards featuring heavy riffing guitar work that at times
has a symphonic structured layered background. Then there are some moody and
spacey moments on the second part of album in which it deals with the human world
as the first part mentions about the infernal reign.

On the atmospheric tracks, as I’ve mentioned before, has a
lot of spacey and avant-garde atmospheres on the keyboard and piano to create a
calm after the firing storm for a moody yet haunting aftermath of the human
race to resurrect. On the sinister touches of Lysimele, Gerassimos who is a
virtuoso to play the instruments and the vocalization on the album, does this
emotional concerto that feels like the aftermath of the war that has fought during
the bloodiest war while he goes into this Ottmar Liebert flamenco turned
classical guitar fingerpicking layered beauty on Ker before ending in a Celtic
movement on Etere.

While the story feels like its straight out of a
science-fiction short story in the realms of Philip K. Dick about the faces
between good and evil from Erebo’s Sons and the usage of Greek Mythology, you
can tell that Gerassimos has done a lot of research in preparation for the
concept to see where he would take it into a different direction. This is an
in-your-face turned strange beauty that is about to open the door and give you
a huge wake-up call.

Friday, January 4, 2013

In 1978, at the time when Punk Rock and new wave was happening,
and the Prog genre was considered dead by the critics who considered “overblown”
and “pretentious dinosaur rock”, it felt as if it was on its death knell. But
something strange was happening in the heart of London. The genre was Rock in
Opposition (RIO for short), it’s one of the most difficult, twisted, and
bizarre genres to come out of the scene that was created by Avant-Prog band,
Henry Cow that launched a festival at the Drury Theatre in that time period
featuring bands from different parts of Europe including Italy, Belgium, and
Sweden; Stormy Six, Univers Zero, and Samla Mammas Manna.

Filmmakers Adele Schmidt and Jose Zegarra Holder, who’ve
done the first documentary on the new generation of the Progressive Rock scene
back in 2010 with Romantic Warriors: A Progressive Music Saga, has received
word-of-mouth through the Prog community and received an Bronze Peer Award for
Best Documentary, has shown there is no stop sign for the documentarians to
discover the RIO genre. And it is an extraordinary documentary about the
history of the genre and why it was completely ahead of its time.

The bands paved the wave for the RIO scene, have finally
been given the recognition they deserve as Adele and Jose are the Doctor Watson
and Sherlock Holmes of this documentary by carefully researching each of the
band’s music and interviewing members who were a part of that movement
including Chris Cutler, member of Henry Cow and label manager of Recommended
Records, was a wonderful moment and a great moment in the film explained how
the genre was short-lived and how he started out the label and opened the door
for new indie labels like Crammed Discs, AltRock, and Cuneiform Records to name
a few, helped get the RIO genre to be resurrected in the underground circuit.

However, one of the bands that started the RIO revolution
was in 1970 by the French Zeuhl group, Magma. And while they weren't a part of the movement, they were an inspiration for the genre. Drummer Christian Vander, who
almost looks like a mad scientist, is another excellent moment of the film in
where he talks about how he came up with the Zeuhl movement and why they wanted
to move away from the Hippie scenery into darker territories of anti-war and
sober, silent music and the cosmic universe, “I knew many people who suddenly
become ‘Love People’. He says, “I didn’t fall for that, I said to myself, maybe
someday, but this is not the time. We were waging a war. Something had to
happen.” And that is an impressive concept to get away from the whole peace and
love movement into something more evil and terrifying.

Today, new bands like Miriodor (Canada), Sleepytime Gorilla
Museum (USA), Yugen (Italy), Ruins Alone (Japan), and Guapo (UK), are
paying homage to the movement and they have done one hell of a job to carry the
flaming fire. One of the bands that I was completely blown away by was Thinking
Plague by singing Dead Silence for rehearsals in which it has this King Crimson
meets Frank Zappa attitude as if it was recorded in the ‘80s and a small
performance at Orion Sound Studios. Also Hamster Theatre at the Orion Sound Studios creating
this Avant-Swing Jazz sound performance as if they recorded the score for the
Triplets of Belleville and while I adore the new bands like Guapo, Yugen, and
Miriodor, I hope to check these bands out later on this year.

So if you hate the
commerciality of top ten radio and can’t stand it, watch this documentary and
you can tell how these bands took it into different levels and where they can
take it up a notch and push the envelope like no other!

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About Me

I'm a blogger/freelance writer from Houston, TX who writes album reviews because I enjoy it. Even though, I'm not the best writer, there is no stop sign for me. I have a love of Progressive Rock music, Jazz Fusion, and Early Heavy Metal music from the '60s to the early '80s. I went to HCC (Houston Community College) for nine years and have completed my degree in Music in Performance: Jazz Studies. I've been writing Progressive Rock and Symphonic Metal reviews starting back in 2008 on my blogsite and it never gets old.